Hey Waffle on as much as you like, You certainly have great knowledge of these things and I always look forward to reading your replies as I can learn something new from you myself. Many thanks from Markus

One rarely reads something so insightful in YT comments. Good research. And I did find out exactly the same, Fujitsu, Fanuc and their early numeric controls...only like 20 years ago haha. There is more on the synthe ic MB87136 if you deep dive on .jp sites. The PCM54 suggests 16 bit but the lower four bits go thru an extra DA stage, top right from the BB. So Roland rightly calls it 20 bit conversion. I recommend the upgrade decribed here fr.audiofanzine.com/synthe-numerique/roland/d-50/pedago/tutoriels/lifting-electro-meca-nique-du-roland-d-50-7182/ where auto translation might be helpful again if you missed that French class. It's a night and day difference. The easy way to fix typical Roland aftertouch issue is using an expression pedal. 9:30 potentiometer with additional middle tap.

Thanks Neffers. I have a serious keyboard shortage here at the moment as I had to sell my entire collection off apart from one synth so I could buy my childhood dream synth. so this d-50 makes the perfect addition in my quest to rebuild my mancave

"I had to sell my entire collection off" Sounds heart breaking Markus. I have lost stuff. I was really into making tunes and drumming when I was 13, the school I was at helped me get a simple drum kit and a D5 (five) to go with my STe - and I had a load of other nice toys to learn with, then things went tits up for my family. Eviction. Only got chance to dip my toe. My gear paid for my dad not getting yet another summons and ending up in jail, we still lost the house (and 14 years of my life) though. 23 years later and I've not recovered and things aren't at all rosy so I treasure all old stuff (hoarding to a point). I'm currently trying to refurb an STfm that I was given and am gonna take it to the studio once done so it can live with the rack gear and serve its purpose as intended. The ST is grotty as hell at the mo. I am gonna whiten it, add a Blitter, maybe a TOS switcher and if coin allows eventually fit a simple accelerator. Preliminary album here if you are interested www.imgur.com/a/6lnac. I keep getting asked why I do stuff like this from remaining family. If only I could just say "Cubase and low latency" to them and be done. The gear I have to use is basic, Novation Bass Station (old rack) Novation Drumstation, Emu Orbit, Akai S2000 sampler and the Yam CS1x I have sat in front of me now. Nothing special, but creativity can overcome that I'm sure. There's other outboard stuff but they are the only sound creating devices I have. Edit; Wow, sorry for the ramble Markus I didn't realise and just kept typing :/

Hi Neffers, That was an interesting read. true you do not have to have amazing gear to make good music, theres several people I know that only have a simple keyboard with a few basic sounds on them but they make really nice music. I am down to 2 (3 with the D-50) keyboards now and want to start on a new peoject but squeeze as much as I can out of these. I had a house full of synths not so long ago but it was all too distracting, shall I play this one or that one and never actually did anything creative. I did the massive sell off to buy a good digital and a good analog and I have more room to breath now. but I am still fighting for Time to get around to actually doing something useful or creative, but as we both know being creative happens only when it happens.

Funny things plenty in the D50's design...Vref, X, Y all have 0.1 caps parallel for stabilizing V on the IC. That's what the middle tap of the (single btw) potentiometer is used for.

Jakob Haq Hello Jakob, yes indeed this is partly your synth also and I promise to keep it in good condition and hope to use it in future music making. Best wishes from Markus.

Hi Clydesight I dabbed fine watchmakers oil into the tiny gap of the shaft before I heated it. Im hoping the oil had a small chance of getting in there but I have as I am writing this just tried the pitchbender again and it seems fine, plus its quite cold here at the moment . but I will certainly go and look at this Marvel Mystery Oil. sounds good.

markusfuller I think you will be amazed at what Marvel Mystery Oil can do. It's not that expensive and is so versatile. It will help out your projects a lot.

That volume knob also gave me headaches with the main outputs. Had to replace mine as the plastic shaft became wobbly.

Hi Gareth. I remember the D-10 we had one at college but I seemed to always miss out on buying the D-50 as it was too expensive or one turned up when I was skint.

I have been looking for sounds on google theres thousands of people out there that have made settings up for this. Hmm this one I will keep forever

I hope you can dance better than me. people say I do a Dad Dance whatever that means LOL

Something similar was said about me, until I went to Chicago and experienced my first rave.

I went to a rave once and felt like I was someones grand dad as I just could not enjoy myself as much as I tried, my body will not accept alcohol or drugs and I think they are some main ingredients to fully enjoying a proper Rave.

This is the first one I have ever owned. I have friends who own them and they always sounded very interesting but until now I could not get one.

Thank You. I never touched a keyboard until I was about 20 years old and it was that casio with the calculator built in.

hahaha, fantastic

the part from the beginning was from Jean-mMichel Jarres industrial revolutions

I always wanted the DX-7 back in the day but the price was way out of my reach so I ended up with a casio to get me by.

Hi Shawn Thanks for pointing that out. I’m not sure why some had one chip and others have 2.

A friend of mine had the Varios, very interesting machine indeed.

Yes, iti is :) it's sampler, too with its own software you can edit on a LCD monitor.

Im not sure how to program this D-50 yet but I will spend some time on it and try to understand it as it is a very nice sounding synthesiser. ps I see your collection of keyboards on your youtube page keeps on growing :-) keep up the good work.

It has been a while since I bought "new" ones, but there are still some that I haven't presented yet :-)

First time I ever seen one like that

Well the Atari ST came out 2 years before the D-50 for less than half the price.. and that had 512KB.. so.. it can't have been THAT much of the cost in 1987

Thank You Miles

Yes it warms up the grease in the pot and softens it enough to get it going again, though im not sure how long it will last, but I have just checked it and it still moves freely.

mine tightens as soon as it cools down. anyone have any other ideas? @@markusfuller

Hi Marc. Yes I should have tried a bit of regreasing as it was hot but the gap was so tiny I doubt anything could have flowed through. however it is still working at the moment but when it starts sticking again I will try some new grease while its warm. Its in incredibly good condition and I doubt the original owner ever used it often.

Yes I think you have the 100pin chip version and mine has fewer pins around 80 or just over but they have basically the same information on them.

16 or 24 bit really wouldn't make any difference in this application. A higher bit-depth than 16 bit would theoretically give you a higher dynamic range, but the D-50 is somewhat noise to begin with. So it doesn't come close to the theoretical limit of 16 bit. Therefore a 24-bit DAC wouldn't do anything for the sound quality. Also in 1987 such a DAC was probably not available or extremely expensive.

well to compare the casing of the system-8 with the d-50 is like the system-8 is a 3 wheeled reliant robin and a d-50 is a sherman tank. however sound quality of the system-8 is very good (well i think so) and all the buttons and rotary controllers are perfectly good to use and should last. you really have to try one out to be honest.

thank you for answering my question

LOL I looked at the card and I see what you mean there. it does look like Lambert & Butler

excellent, im looking through google and keep on downloading new sounds for it, there is so much on the internet for this keyboard I doubt I will ever get tired of it.

Hello, I just placed the pot as centred as possible by eye and it seems to be ok. maybe it gathers pot settings when on power up and uses that as centre. I really do not know.

You are probably correct Markus. To confirm it, you could hold it off centre while it boots and sample a note, reboot the synth with no bend, play the same note and compare. If both notes sound the same, it is calibrating upon boot.

Hi Chris. nobody needs to throw in anything but I have a few supporters on patreon and every now and then I get enough together to buy something to make another video up for everyone.

I meant no offence - I really enjoy your videos as they demystify a lot about electronics and encourage my curiosity. The more the merrier, quite simply!

Hi Chris. No don't get me wrong I never imagined you were throwing an offence at me at all. I guess my previous reply may have sounded like I was shouting back at you which was not my intention at all. I was just sort of describing how the patreon thing was really helping with buying a few more things for my videos. Sorry about that crossed wires. Best wishes from Markus.

P. Sy desk has a fake drawer which you just pull the front down and you can put your pc keyboard in there. But it has a metal hinge on it. It must have been that which touched it. My roland d50 is upstairs in bits atm and has been for a couple of months. Just bought a cheap ys22 so I can play the sounds from my roland d550 rack when I get it. So at least whatever happens I should be able to actually play a roland d50 again but on the yamaha ys22 synth via midi. Tbh seeing the roland d50 again in your video almost breaks my heart as I had that thing since the early 90's, it would be nice to get it fixed. But as said atm the moment the things in bits upstairs. Seeing it in your vid makes me feel although it will be great when the rack vers comes you just can't beat owning a roland d50.

It wasn't easier to make patches on though was it, IIRC?

Neuron - it was way more Predictable than FM and they sold the programmer (as seen in the thumbnail)

And now its working again after several years of it not being OK. You can access the test mode on xp30 by holding controller - Oct and expansion a whilst powering on.

The touch strip below the keys will be grubby (Markus pointed it out in the video here kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Y9Wgd6-kx93eaWw.html), it's not an ideal surface for this application but was practical and cheap. You will have to remove the keys probably (they will come out entirely on a bracket, shouldn't be too hard), and expose the plastic strip. The black lines are carbon "switches", the same as used in joypads etc. Wipe them down carefully with IPA, this will clean the gunk off them and not harm the plastic strip. Next you will have to do the same with each individual key, underneath is a black rubberised version of the strip. Use IPA and a lint free swap to wipe each rubber blob a few times. Don't touch them at all after cleaning, just keep gently swabbing until there's no visible grot on the swabs. Leave to dry fully before reassembling (some IPA has a higher water content) or the pads may stick to the plastic strip. The spring may have come off of the plastic pins that retain it, or the plastic pins may have broken off (worst case). Do what Markus did here to have a look at the assembly.

Anubhav Mitra Hello Anubhav, now theat the system-8 is on sale im guessing there will be several system-1 units on sale so I would try and get a better deal from your guitar centre, but the system-1 is a good synthesiser I did not like the keyboard but if you connect a larger midi keyboard to it then it is fine and you can make some very interesting sounds with it.

markusfuller I mean to ask that , is it worth buying a Second hand Used System 1 for almost $299 in US ??

Anubhav Mitra Hello the roland system-1 is new at £372 which makes it $456 US dollars so im guessing that price is not too bad that you have been quoted.

Hello Im sorry but I do not know where you can find a replacement pitch bender. there are so many different types and shapes and its almost impossible to pull one off a different keyboard. you have to find the same. have you tried the website called syntaur.com ? they have many vintage spares.

@@markusfuller Yes but it is out of stock and who knows if it is for ever. Thank u so much.

I have done this with a few pots over the years. The problem is that you reduce the viscosity of the grease, it can ruin the feel of the thing, ruining the lubrication leading to a bit of a wobble and then it all runs down potentially depositing the now much thinner grease all over the wiper strip. I think Markus did the right thing, in his case at least.

zz-top Hi That is a problem i have not heard about before?. it sounds as though the synth thinks the keys have not been released thats why you cannot retrigger them a second time. I would check the ribbon connector from the keybed to the main board and then maybe switch on the instrument and short across one of the carbon tracks where a pad would make contact just to see if i can trigger the same note several times. if you can only do it once then theres a problem in the main board though i cannot guess what it could be.

Thanks, I'll try that.

Thats a good question Simon and one that I do not have the answer to. still it has got me wondering the same thing.

If i was a genius i would invent the ever lasting capacitor. It's scandalous. I just had to have my emu 1820m fixed and it whistles a little bit now after It's been on for a while! Planned obsolescence if you ask me

Hello It is simply left over carpet from my flat. nothing special at all.

Don't some of those man made fibres create static?!

Hello Kayak yes they have similarities, I have an MT-32 under my desk so will get inside it and have a look around.

Neat i'd be very interested in that :)

Marc Nelson Hi Marc, the keys actually press down 2 pads one just before the other and thats how it knows how hard or rather how fast you have pressed the key so it may be a simple job of cleaning up the carbon contacts under the rubber pads as it is probable not working out the difference in time between the first and second carbon contact.

Many thanks Markus. I'll strip it down this evening and check the contacts have a good weekend.

markusfuller spot on, Markus cleaned the contacts and all fixed!! Cheers for the advice

Marc Nelson Brilliant Marc, im pleased you got it all working again. best wishes.

They seem to sell the displays on Amazon/Ebay.

It's effectively their name for dsp synthesis from what I can see. (It was ahead of it's time). It generates it's analogue style wave forms and filtering using digital signal processing. It can also mix samples with the wave forms,voices can be made up of up to 4 parts + you got chorus and reverb for the first time to complete your sounds. It was a very innovative keyboard in it's time unfortunately I only got to play with the synthesizers that copied the sample playback features which were disappointing compared to the previous digital analogue hybrids. No doubt Mark will be making a full voice programming video for it shortly :-)

Hmm now thats an idea for a video, but I will have to understand how to program it first.

markusfuller Oh, if you do decide to make a video, could please explain the basics of the synthesis that came before the D50 and after it to put it into context. I've seen people asking questions about the basics of programming synthesizers after doing tear downs/repairs etc and other D50 owners in the comments. Thanks for posting the video.

I know this question was not directed to me, but I am going to go ahead and answer anyway. From synthesis point of view, the D-50 is a subtractive synthesizer, with square wave generator, variable pulse width, ring modulator, lowpass resonant filter (you also get sawtooth wave at that stage), 3 LFO's (that can be routed to four destinations: pulse width, pitch, filter, and amplifier), and 3 envelopes (pitch, filter, amplifier). And you can treat the PCM samples as a bonus, as well as the parametric EQ, chorus, delays, and reverb. The "linear" aspect of the name for this synthesizer describes adding up to four oscillators. Not a true additive synthesis here, but hey, you can make a case that it is a rudimentary high level additive synthesis on top of a subtractive synthesizer. Hey, you can even make the case that you're adding harmonics with the ring modulator, and then subtract then with the filter. Oh well, the interpretation of the "linear" moniker is then entirely up to you. :)

Hi Neffers, yes I think it is all Sysex information that is sent.

Cool, I didn't think Sys Ex could be sent on the fly like that. That opens a whole world of modulation possibilities surely?!

Hi Neffers, If you are holding a note then change a fader on the PG then nothing happens until you retrigger that note. whereas midi could change the sound Sysex seems to only make a difference when retriggered after the command has been changed. its all smoke and mirrors to me. LOL

Ah, I see. So it's not practical to use the PG while performing / playing back Midi. Shame, that could have been a fun tool for you to abuse.

Hi I used the pioneer toraiz though to be honest im not getting on with it too well.

interesting, i always though its more of a dj tool (and quite expensive hehe).. .. and unrelated question, have you ever repaired Akai MPC? or do you recall any video where you repaired tact switches?

Hi the Toraiz is similar to the MPCs but it is seriously lacking some firmware upgrade. I have taken apart the Ableton push 2 (which I still own and use) but I have not done a video on Tactile switches specifically but I think I did some replacements of them in the Yamaha W7 video.

thank you Markus

Tactile switches.... there's many types of defining tactile as far as swiching goes. If you google tactile switch you get the common four pronged black buttoned devices. For these you can find a multitude of specs, the rise, height and diameter of the black button, the pressure required to activate and all manner of info. One word of warning if you are looking to replace this kind, get a proper one. The ones made out of chinesium are great, for ten minutes. Omron is the brand to go for when looking for any mechanical micro / tactile switch. Sadly it's well know for the guys over at china to stamp Omron on anything, beware of fakes. Start here. www.omron.com/ecb/products/sw/ Tactiles are here www.omron.com/ecb/products/search/?cat=2&did=2&prd=tactile-standard&lang=en

Do you mean Yello as in Dieter Meier and Boris Blank?

Yes, them. I barely recognized the sound, but I definitely heard it somewhere.

Yes I love those two in Yello, I have many of their CDs. the sound I used was from Jean-Michel Jarre's track Industrial revolution. but I guess Yello must also have used this D-50

It turned up at just the right time and in such good condition with the pg1000. I think it was meant to happen.

Done what Terence ?

i have the same problem. I fixed it couple times by cleaning the contacts with alcohol underneath the rubberstrips which i also replaced once, but never got the keys to work for more than a month or so. I think the alcohol wasn't the best product for that. i also have some gunk in my front panel buttons. I cleaned them also (it's a pain to get there from the bottom) but i only got some them to work properly. Most used buttons are in the worst condition, so i need to replace them in some point in the future.